Ecclestone: Let Hamilton race

Editor 16 Jun 2011 9:38 AM

Bernie Ecclestone has defended Lewis Hamilton, saying that while some of his moves are questionable, people are “wrong to rubbish” him…

Bernie Ecclestone has defended Lewis Hamilton, saying that while some of his moves are questionable, people are “wrong to rubbish” him.

Hamilton came in for some stick after Sunday’s Canadian GP where once again he was involved in several incidents.

Despite crashing out of the grand prix on lap 8, the McLaren driver faced three stewards’ investigations, two of which were for tagging other drivers.

The first was when he put Mark Webber into a spin while the second involved his own team-mate Jenson Button. And it was that accident that resulted in Hamilton retiring from the grand prix.

It was the second successive race in which Hamilton faced a barrage of investigations having twice been penalised in Monaco for causing avoidable accidents.

The McLaren driver’s antics led to him being criticised by past World Champions Niki Lauda and Emerson Fittipaldi.

“What Hamilton did there goes beyond all boundaries. He is completely mad,” Lauda told RTL television while Fittipaldi reckons that “sometimes he is too aggressive when he tries to overtake.”

However, Ecclestone believes people should back off with the criticism and just let Hamilton race.

“People have been wrong to rubbish Lewis,” the F1 supremo told The Independent.

“What we want is people racing, and all the people who watch it want that.

“If you analyse what’s been happening and how other drivers have been performing, Lewis shows up very well, and so do Sebastian (Vettel) and Jenson (Button).

So let him race. That’s what people like him do.

“I was very, very good friends with (Ayrton) Senna, and if you look at what he did, he was a racer too, and people had to move over for him.

“Perhaps Lewis has made one or two questionable moves, but so have many of the others, and nobody bothers to look what’s happening further down the field. It’s always been like this.

“We saw a lot of people racing in Canada on Sunday, and Jenson did a super job. That’s what the fans want to see.”